Northampton Arts Council Announces Ari Banias as 2026-2028 Poet Laureate
The Northampton Arts Council is proud to announce the appointment of Ari Banias as the City of Northampton’s Poet Laureate for the 2026–2028 term. Selected by the Poet Laureate Sub-Committee and recently ratified by the Arts Council, Banias succeeds Franny Choi as the 11th poet to hold this prestigious civic role.
The Poet Laureate position is a two-year honorary term designated to a poet who demonstrates excellence in their craft and a profound commitment to the local community. During the term, the Laureate serves as an ambassador for poetry, educating the public on the importance of the art form through public readings and community-centered projects.
About Ari Banias
Ari Banias is the author of two full-length poetry collections, A Symmetry (W. W. Norton, 2021), which won the 2022 Leslie Feinberg Award for Trans & Gender Variant Literature, and Anybody (W. W. Norton, 2016), which was a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. He is the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Wallace Stegner Program, the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, and Headlands Center for the Arts. Ari’s poems have appeared in Triple Canopy, The Nation, The New Republic, Hyperallergic, Georgia Review, Washington Square, The Yale Review, and We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics, among others. He has taught graduate and undergraduate poetry in numerous venues, most recently as a visiting assistant professor at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in Spring 2025. In addition to teaching, Ari has worked in independent bookselling for nearly two decades.
Community Vision and Term
Banias’s term officially began on February 10, 2026, and will continue through February 10, 2028.
"We are thrilled to welcome Ari as our new Poet Laureate," said Brian Foote, Executive Director of the Northampton Arts Council. "His voice and vision will be instrumental in continuing our city’s long-standing tradition of celebrating poetry as a vital part of our civic life."
The Northampton Arts Council will support the Laureate’s efforts by providing administrative assistance, covering promotional costs, and facilitating public events throughout the two-year residency.
